[quoted from :- Hoppa`l 2000, p. 83] "a part of my soul, a kind
of block, became detached from me. My body was lying down, I could even
see it. I could see my arm {noticing one’s hand in one’s dream is mentioned
by Carlos Castan~eda} and then suddenly I felt that the ceiling had vanished.
I began to grow until I was a giant. My body was just growing and growing
until I could reach the sky. ... And I still carried on growing and then
I heard some sort of sound just like a bubble when it flies through the
water and then pops. The soul was as if I was inside a bubble ... going
up and up inside it." {traveling through the air inside a bubble
is mentioned by Carlos Castan~eda}

p. 21, fn. 14

"I rose in a soap bubble, ever higher. ... Then I landed ... and
the bubble shattered. I was asked a thousand questions. ... I came back
into my body".

p. 21

"his ability to leave his body more often, to defeat "evil
spirits" by using a mirror ..., reflecting the sun’s rays on them
{this is Taoist} ... and escape on a flying horse."

"people ... suffer directly from symptom of the so-called shamanistic
sickness which is inflicted

p. 44

upon them by their deceased shaman-relatives because they ... have been
elected to carry on the shamanistic calling ... . ... In case of shamanic
sickness, the shamans’ advice is that the only way the person can be cured
is by getting initiated as a shaman. ...

p. 45

Shamanistic sickness usually leads to initiation and dissolution of the
crisis as the future shaman accepts his or her destiny and forges a link
with the ancestral spirits that contributed to the crisis in the first
place."

pp. 46-7 s^anar : caerimonial assumption of shamanhood

p. 46

"the initiation is a life-long process consisting of a series of
consecutive progressions from the first to the highest ninth degree over
a number of years. ...

After the identity of the candidate’s ancestral spirits were determined,
he or she undergoes the first initiation, called Altan serge (...
"Golden string [for horses]"), the purpose of which is to link
the future shaman directly with his or her ancestral spirit ... . ...

In the ensuing second initiation, which usually takes place after two
or three years, ... thirty-two young birch trees were selected ... . Every
tree was decorated with" :-

__ ribbons

tied to the tree’s ... part

symbolizing an offering of ... for the spirits

red & yellow

top

gold

blue & white

lower

silver

p. 47

They circumambulated the trees "as many times as necessary until
[the neophyte] finally became possessed. At one moment he started to climb
the main tree ..., which was followed by amnesia".

p. 48 memory of soul-journeys in shamanship

"Some shamans from Ulan-Ude also told ... that sometimes they vaguely
remember snippets of their soul journeys when the spirit takes hold of
their bodies. [One shaman] told ... that during trance his soul leaves
his body and wanders around. Sometimes he can recall his experience, must
most of the times he cannot. When he does remember, he sees people and
a landscape like in a dream."

[Batek of Taman Negara] A halak (shaman) explained that "in search
of medicinal plants ... in the jungle ... only his body was walking ...,
his soul was flying from a mountain to a river, later to rest on a tree
or flower."

"Jahai jampi ... in their dreams, receive magical chants
and fly to beautiful and unknown parts of the forest."

[Batek of Taman Negara] Another halak (shaman) "told ... that almost
every night his shadow-soul entered the body of a scorpion and went to
the river to catch crabs. Once the meal was finished, the shaman-scorpion
... was able to study the plants from inside in order to determine their
therapeutic value."

pp. 69-80 – Takako Yamada : "Continuation of Shamanism ... among the Ladakhi
and the Sah^a".

pp. 70-1 Ladakh

p. 70

"Ladakhi shamans, who are called lha-ba in the case of men
and lha-mo in the case of women, must all experience a possession-illness
for a long period before they are acknowledged as a novice by a senior
lha-ba or lha-mo. ... Shamans are those who have become
able to control their spirit-possession illness. They perform se’ances
in a state of trance, being possessed by a god (lha) to divine
the causes of harm and misfortunes, to heal or drive away and evil spirit
... . ... it was considered that a se’ance should be performed by a shaman
in the kitchen where the oven god (thab lha) always resides. {the
stove-deity is Chinese} ... A se’ance consisted of

(1) the invitation of lha,

(2) the transformation of the shaman into {spirit-possession of the spirit-medium
by} lha,

(3) the application of healing techniques by demonstrating lha’s
power, and

(4) the sending-off of lha".

p. 71

"The very moment of the shaman’s transformation into a god ... can
only be guessed by the hiccup and the shrill of "a! tsi tsi!"."

p. 72 Sah^a

"shamans were called for different reasons :

(1) to foretell the future,

(2) to find a missing thing, or

(3) to beg for good fortune.

They were also called

(4) to be present at weddings, ysyakh (midsummer festival), and
other Sakha festivities, but their main purpose was

(5) to come ... to people suffering from ... culture-bound illnesses,
and try to make them well."

"it was the shaman’s role to search for the lost soul of a patient
... . Therefore, ... they traveled with the assistance of helping spirits
to the upper world and the underworld".

"a falcon’s loud, distinct, and penetrating cry, or

a gull’s pitiable wail is uttered; ...

impromptu dialogues with spirits are uttered;

the shaman drives out the cause of the sickness by frightening it away,
blowing it away from his palm far into the air, or sucking it out of the
sore pot with his mouth" [reference :- Sieroszewski 1997, pp. 994-1000].

pp. 81-5 Daniel A. Kister : "The Power of Shamanic Rites ... among the
Yi".

p. 81 Yi

The Yi ... live in the southwest Liangshan Mountains. The male shamanist
figure called bimo ... evokes the presence of gods and spirits
... . ...

The names of Yi gods commonly contain a tree name ..., and rituals make
... use of a "spirit branch" –

fir for a goat sacrifice,

willow for a cock.

Branches stuck in the ground mark off the ritual space and represent
a stellar constellation or the pathway or seat of a god or ghost. ...

Rites send souls of the dead to peace, ... pray for good fortune, ...
pray for the birth of a child, or summon lost souls."

(Distinct from Chinese writing is) "the written Yi language of about
850 characters."

"A chant ... recalled ... :

In olden times, a bird descended from the sky to a tree, shook its wings,
and let a feather fall. It used the feather to write {ordinary Chinese
use a brush, not a feather, for writing} bimo texts, which it put
beneath the tree. A man came, saw them, and started performing bimo
rites."

p. 82 an annual caerimony of the Yi

"In early October ..., a month before the Yi New Year, the grandfather
performed a xiapu ... to celebrate the harvest ... . ... The rite
is normally held at the hearth of the old family home after sundown ...
. It invoked

the Sun God,

the Yi Ancestral god,

the God of Farming,

the Eagle God,

the Fire God,

the Water God, etc. ...

The rite progresses through a series of low chants" :-

Chant

its contents

1st

"recounts the cock’s history – from egg, to chick, to cock."

2nd

"tells the history of bimo and the origin of the Yi language".

3rd

"tells the history of plants – how the fir and willow came from
the heavens."

4th

"recounts the history of human beings".

"In an action repeated after most subsequent chants, ... all call
out "Wuho" ... . This frightens away ghosts and what ... are
evil words and deeds committed by family members or others during the
past year."

"Among the clans that are famous for their shamans (e.g. the Durlag,
who immigrated from the Altai ...), there are ... the Haytal, the Hurdut,
and the Ongoy. The Hurdut clan originates from the eastern, i.e. Barguzin,
side of the Baykal ... . ... The Haytal clan ... migrated from the Altay
to River Lena". "This ... is reflected in a Buryat legend about
a shamaness who escaped ... from Barguzin to Tunka and from there to Alar".

[U:ju:mc^in tradition] "An Uriankhay, especially one of the C^onod
("wolf") clan, wearing white clothes and mounting a white horse,
should assist a person, who was struck by lightning. He calls the lightning
over to himself".

p. 137, fn. 12

"Many Mongol groups, among other the Uriankhays, practice the wide-spread
custom to call out to heaven during storms to signalize to the lightning
that they are heavenly people".

"Mongols believe that three or more years after their death, shamans
become spirits (ongon) and are able to come back to the human world
by seizing the body of another shaman, who is (in most cases) his/her
descendant or apprentice".

p. 166

"Shamans have to be possessed by their spirits (ongon oruulax)
regularly; else they become seriously ill."

"Khanty shamans ... are chosen ... by the gods for this role. When
someone is chosen, he begins to see dreams, from which he learns about
his new task. It usually takes a long time to accept it, mostly years
: during this time the chosen person is ailing. When deciding to accept
the task and to conduct shaman ceremonies, he is cured. ... ..

... the shaman lives on hunting and fishing, as other Khantys do."

pp. 194-5 a performance

p. 194

The caerimony "began with the warming of the shaman drum; while
being out of use, its leather cover got loose, but thanks to the warm[th]
of the iron stove it became tight again. ...

The first part was a long drumming. ...

p. 195

Then came some whistling : these were the whistles of his spirit helpers
– birds. ... After this, the shaman ... began ... jumping ... . ... At
the culminating point of the ceremony ... all the males shouted with him.
... The cries were long and high".

p. 196 songs

"Shaman songs have their special language, frequently not understandable
even for those speaking Khanty as a mother language".

"The Sora (Saora, S`avara, S`abara) are an aboriginal tribe
in Ganjam and Koraput Districts in the state of Orissa and Srikakulam
Dictrict of Andhra Pradesh ... . Sora language belongs to the South Munda
branch".

p. 202

"The shaman (kuran in the Sora language) is ... two kinds
... : the one who is responsible for funerals, and the other one, who
deals with divination and healing. ... It is a daily practice for the
shaman to conduct dialogues with the dead, who speak to living people
through his mouth in trance ... . The dead use the shaman as a medium
to speak. After death, a person becomes a sonum."

p. 203

"The most important shamans are women : they also marry a sonum
... in the Underworld ... . Their husband is the spirit of a previous
shaman, who is usually their relative – this way the marriage is incestuous.
The husband has an Oriya name and although he is married to someone from
our world, he inhabits mountain peaks in the Underworld at the same time."